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U.S. 287 book tosser ID'd, says he had 'no idea it was a mystery'

Glenn Pladsen, 62, ticketed for littering along Boulder County highway

By John Bear

Staff Writer

Posted:
04/23/2015 03:25:52 PM MDT

Updated:
04/24/2015 07:49:27 AM MDT

When Glenn Pladsen was pulled over on U.S. 287 south of Longmont around 5:30 a.m. Thursday and ticketed for tossing books out his car window, he didn't realize that a great mystery had been solved.

"I didn't even know anybody even cared," the Arvada resident said Thursday afternoon when reached at his Longmont workplace. "I just thought they were being blown in the ditch. That's what I thought was happening."

Rather, the books Pladsen had been tossing out his car window since at least last fall had been the subject of newspaper articles, TV news segments and pages of speculation.

Early Thursday, a Colorado state trooper who had been investigating the case of the literary litterbug witnessed a motorist throw books from his vehicle south of Longmont, the CSP announced in a press release Thursday afternoon.

The trooper identified the man he pulled over as Pladsen, and he ticketed the 62-year-old for six counts of littering.

Pladsen says he isn't sure how long he has been dumping books along U.S. 287 on his way to work in Longmont. He just knows he couldn't figure out any other way to get rid of them.

The books, many of them romance novels, had been dumped on U.S. 287 between Arapahoe Road and Lookout Road beginning in November of last year. They had been concentrated near Isabelle Road and sometimes showed up as far north as Longmont.

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Among the titles found on the highway were "The Best Little Boy in the Whole World — The True and Moving Story of Coming to Terms with Being Gay," "Shiloh," "Rocky and Bullwinkle The Movie Official Joke Book" "Rogue Angel Sacrifice" and "Taken by the Viking."

Pladsen said that he acquired thousands of books after a Boulder used bookstore closed about eight years ago and that he sold them online for a while but was unable to compete with Amazon.

"The way they sell their used books put all the used book sellers out," he said. "I was left with thousands of books in the house."

Pladsen said he works long hours as a technician at RF Concepts LLC and that taking the books to the landfill or Goodwill would mean an extra trip, so he started tossing them out of the window on his way to work.

He added that he has arthritis and couldn't lift the books over his head to throw them into a Dumpster. He has tried to give away the books — which cover a variety of topics and genres — but no one wants them.

"My whole basement is full of books, and I need to get rid of them now," he said. "I'll stop doing what I've been doing, of course."

Pladsen said he didn't know anyone had written stories about the dumped books until contacted by the newspaper Thursday.

He added later that he is being blamed online for other books being dumped on the highway but not all of those reports can be attributed to him, and he never left books inside Longmont city limits.

"I never did it when there were other cars around or in traffic," he said. "I had no idea it was a mystery. I would have stopped a long time ago if I though anybody cared."

The Colorado Department of Transportation cared.

State officials have cleaned up more than 600 books on a two-mile stretch of U.S. 287 south of Longmont, with CDOT spokesman Jared Fiel saying that the department has cleaned up at least 400 books off U.S. 287 since February.

A discarded book is seen on the side of U.S. 287 near Dawson Drive on Thursday. (Matthew Jonas / Staff Photographer)

"We've been out at least 10 times," Fiel said. "We are hoping, obviously, that this will finally stop this individual."

Fiel said the book dumping had irritated CDOT workers — who are busy enough — and commuters for months, but added that it was more than just an inconvenience.

"It was a real safety hazard," Fiel said. "On the surface, this just looks like trash. But our guys had to go out on the median and pick these up one by one."

Sarah Amirani, the director of marketing and communications at Dawson School, which is located off U.S. 287, said the books had been dumped on the roadway near the school as recently as this past weekend.

Amirani joked that she has considered placing a sign that asking not for the book dumper's identity, only why he or she was doing it. She added that staffers at Dawson School are "strangely fascinated and highly curious as to the motive."

"I'm at a bit of a loss," Amirani said. "I can only come up with random, far-fetched scenarios. It's been such a specific undertaking. I'm sure there is a thought behind it, and I'm highly curious what that is."

Fiel said authorities had debated whether to place cameras along the road. He said commuters helped to give an accurate time when the books were being dumped.

"They were very accurate," he said. "This was really irking them. They were driving this every day and seeing these in the lane and on the median."

He said CDOT is working with CSP and the Colorado Attorney General's Office to seek restitution for man hours spent cleaning the books off of the highway.

Pladsen said he isn't sure how much his fine will be or if he will fight the charges.

According to CSP, CDOT has spent at least 20 hours cleaning up the books, which has also caused delays and lane closures.

"A lot of our guys, pardon the pun, want to throw the book at this guy," he said. "We are happy this individual has been stopped. If people want to get rid of books, they can go to their library or dump rather than local highways."

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